Wattpad swaps presidents as parent Webtoon streamlines its operating structure

Toronto-based online storytelling and social media platform Wattpad has undergone a key leadership change: president Aron Levitz is out and David Lee has taken over.

Lee also currently serves as the CFO of Wattpad parent company and digital comic producer Webtoon Entertainment, which is owned by South Korean internet conglomerate Naver. BetaKit has reached out to both companies, as well as Levitz, for comment on the leadership turnover.

In a release, Webtoon noted that Lee has previously led transformations at Zynga, Impossible Foods, and Best Buy, and said he steps into the role of president as Wattpad “continues its transformation efforts, with a deepened focus on ad-supported free content and expanded access for its global community of readers and writers.”

“We’re making bold changes to sharpen execution and move faster as an aligned global organization.”
Yongsoo Kim,
Webtoon

This move is part of a series of broader leadership changes at Webtoon aimed at streamlining the firm’s operating structure. Webtoon announced Monday that under new president Yongsoo Kim, the company has made three other promotions, a new hire, and eliminated the CTO role.

“We’re making bold changes to sharpen execution and move faster as an aligned global organization,” Yongsoo Kim said in the release. “We’re not done evolving, and we’re not slowing down.”

Leah Goeun Yeon has been named the firm’s first CBO, while Yuki Chae, Teo Taeyeong Jang, and Sean Shinhyung Kim have been elevated to CPO, head of AI, and head of IP business.

In a LinkedIn post Wednesday, Levitz said he stepped down from Wattpad “to build a new thing,” which he promised to share more about “in a few weeks.”

This marks the end of Levitz’s 12-year tenure with the firm. The longtime leader first joined Wattpad in 2013 as head of business development when only a couple million readers and writers were using its platform. Since then, Wattpad has become a hub for young adult and romance stories, as well as fan fiction.

Today, Wattpad and Webtoon are home to more than 160 million monthly active users. Wattpad stories have launched several popular film and TV adaptations, including the After series and The Kissing Booth; the adaptation of the former brought in a nearly $70 million USD global box office.

During his time with the company, Levitz launched and led Wattpad Studios and Wattpad Webtoon Studios, spinning up the latter after Wattpad’s 2021 acquisition by Naver for $754 million CAD. Levitz was named co-president of Wattpad in late 2024, and took sole ownership of the role in May 2025 when KB Nam returned to South Korea to lead Webtoon’s IP business.

Levitz sat down with BetaKit in October to unpack Wattpad’s evolving strategy, which he said involved implementing product features to improve story discoverability, offering readers and writers more ways to connect, improving its advertising and subscription services, and adopting AI while ensuring human creation remains at the core of Wattpad.

As of last August, Wattpad had over 200 Canadian employees based largely in Toronto with a smaller presence in Halifax. Like many other Canadian tech firms, Wattpad has undergone multiple layoffs in recent years amid deteriorating market conditions, including staff reductions in early 2023 and early 2024. Wattpad and Webtoon have already integrated their tech and some services and shared IP and users while working together to grow both platforms.

Feature image courtesy Wattpad.